On tasting: Three Nant Bourbon Cask single malt whiskies, two at 43%, one at 63%.
For anyone with a passing interest in Australian whisky, the Nant story needs little introduction. Nant has been in and out of the headlines for a number of years, but 2020 has marked a quieter, more stable period in the distillery’s history.
So we thought this was a good time to focus on the liquid itself (it’s one part of the Nant story that’s been lost in recent years) and set all the politics and ownership matters aside. Of course, you can’t simply overlook the negligence of former owners in damaging the reputation of the whisky and causing enormous grief to the many people who lost money on Nant’s barrel scheme. That history certainly makes an appraisal of the whisky more complex.
But here, we decided to look at three Nant Bourbon cask single malts to get a clear view of the much-commented upon spirit. If you think back, it was actually the Bourbon cask whiskies that won Nant its early praise, with Jim Murray marking a three year old cask strength sample as equal to the world’s finest single malts. It was a big moment for Australian whisky internationally (whatever your opinion of Murray’s reviews).
After that, the consistency of this expression was a little erratic. So the important question remains: if you buy a Nant Bourbon Cask now (all releases are from single casks) is the quality consistent or wildly different?
The results here prove it’s perhaps more cask selection and timing. The clean, floral spirit has always stood up to scrutiny (when it hasn’t been messed about with). If anything, this once acclaimed expression, while still high-quality, is now looking a bit safe. Against the backdrop of all the Australian single malt whisky that’s emerged over the last four years, particularly Bourbon-cask matured, it doesn’t really leap out of the glass like it once did. So where to next for a distillery that’s never been short of surprises?
